Letter: Lost values are sorely needed today

I applaud a Dec. 19 letter writer for calling out the culture of violence evident everywhere in our society from highways to athletic fields, from Hollywood gore to the thrill of massacre in video games. She so beautifully and poignantly articulated how we as a society have normalized violence as part of everyday life. We now have a generation of parents who were raised in a culture steeped in violence, who are less concerned about what their own children see and do. Add this to broken families, decline in religion and it is a recipe for Newtown.

Funny how when tragedy does strike we hear words like God, prayer and angels in the media when they are normally banned from mentioning lest they offend. Maybe the ringing of gunshots has deafened our ears and numbed our minds and hearts. Unless we wake up and return to sane decency of the mocked '50s, expect more little martyrs to be sacrificed for our collective abandon of the common good.